


Letters for my love

by Butterflyfish



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: M/M, Rickyl, Rickyl Writers' Group, Rickyl Writers' Group Secret Santa 2018, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 12:06:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17263907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterflyfish/pseuds/Butterflyfish
Summary: Daryl and Rick have various agreements, one is they will never be married, it’s not Daryl's thing.But when Daryl begins acting shady, and Rick starts to worry,  only a letter can explain.





	Letters for my love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HogwartsToAlexandria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/gifts).



> For hogwartstoalexandria, who wanted something fluffy.

Dear Rick.

I know what you’re thinking, what seeing this letter might make you feel, but you have to trust me and read to the end.

I’m more eloquent this way, (see) and I find this easier than saying anything out loud.

You know me, deeply.

I guess that’s why I’m here, writing a damn letter like a teenage girl.

I know how things have looked lately, and I wanted to apologise. Late nights, early mornings, overtime with no extra money showing.

I’ll get to that, I will, I swear, but there’s more I wanted to say first. Or write, whatever.

I was so happy. Really, truly, insanely happy. You were everything I wanted, needed, in life.

The moment you walked in the auto shop looking for my boss and swinging your big gun around... man, that’s a day I’ll never forget... I knew you were it, we were meant to be.

I worked hard, tirelessly, on getting you. That sounds terrible but it’s what went through my mind. I had to have you, and I never felt like that before. That it meant so much to me was something in itself.

You understood my need for space, my need to be just with my thoughts. You knew to just listen when I ranted about things, the anniversary of mom’s death, the anniversary of my dad’s. even though he was an asshole you never said that, you let me vent without judging.

You understood my views on marriage, and didn’t get upset that it would never happen between us. He’ll you done it once, right?

When Lori and Shane had the accident and we got the kids, that was so bittersweet. I thought I’d never be happier and suddenly we’re a family, and my heart could have about exploded with joy at the same time as it broke to a thousand pieces at the loss of good friends, your ex and your best friend. I could never express how sorry I was with words. I wrote you a letter then too, remember?

_Rick looks up and smiles, but Daryl is glaring at him intently. His smile falters, and he looks back at the letter._

Anyway. Things were tough with the kids, Judith just a baby, Carl becoming a teen, and finding time for us was hard. We were tired, cranky, both working and myself particularly, kind of lost. I didn’t know who I was supposed to be. I loved those kids to death, but I’d suddenly become Dad, where was Daryl?

I tried to find him at the bottom of a glass in a bar down town with Merle, it didn’t work. You never smugly cried ‘I told you so’, you just let me learn and make my own mistakes. I’m so grateful for that.

And now, I run around almost like I’m single, I disappear night after night or don’t come home from work for hours, and not once do you start a fight. I guess you assume it’s one of my rants, one of my mad Daryl moments that I need to get over.

Well, the truth is, sort of.

I’ve been seeing someone.

_Rick almost crumbles the paper in his hand and looks up at Daryl again. His bright blue eyes brimming with angry tears, his heart beating a thousand tones faster than it should. He’s unsure if he should be angry or sad, and the turmoil of emotions makes it clear to Daryl, by a simple glance at his face, where in the letter Rick is._

_“Guess I ain’t quite so eloquent, huh?” Daryl asks shyly, quietly, pointing at the notepaper. “Read on, that ain’t it.”_

_Rick looks back that the notepaper, but his eyes are so watery and the words so blurred that for a moment he can’t continue reading._

_He takes a breath, a swig of his beer, and tries again._

That’s not how it sounds. He’s a jeweller.

_Rick frowns, sure he’s read something wrong. Daryl watches his lover’s brows knit together and a smile toys on the corners of his mouth. He always loved Rick’s confused face, and it was so rarely seen it was all the more special._

_Rick was always so confident, Daryl was surprisingly excited to knock that confidence from under him._

_Rick’s face smooths our and his eyes begin to trace back and forth again._

He’s a jeweller. A guy my brother found for me, believe it or not.

All the overtime hours I worked were for cash, I couldn’t have you seeing where it’ll the money was going from our account.

All the times I ditched out of spending time together, I was planning something.

Something special.

Look up, Rick.

 _Daryl notices Rick’s eyes stop tracing back and forth. He’s at the end ofe the letter, and for an eternity Rick doesn’t move. He breathes slowly, steadily, but refuses to look up_.

_“Rick?”_

_Finally, oh so painfully slowly, Rick’s eyes lift from the page and his beautiful face tilts up towards Daryl’s._

_“What’s going on Daryl?” Rick asks, not noticing at first that Daryl is on his knee, right there in the middle of the restaurant. The whole room is silent, the air tense. “You’re scaring me.” Rick says, voice tight and quiet._

_Daryl swallows visibly, loudly, and tries a smile which feels wrong on his face._

_“I love ya, Rick. I love our kids and I live our life. I realised, you make me Daryl. I ain’t gonna find Daryl anywhere but with you.” He swallows again. “I wanna be your Daryl forever.” He reaches in his pocket, fumbles,_ _eventually pulls out a ring box.“Just say yes.” He says, opening the box to reveal a simple band of gold._


End file.
